Poetry Festival at Hill of Poets in Genh Rang tourist spot, Quy Nhon City. Photo by Ð.T.Ð

The most interesting event of the festival that attracted most of the attenders was 45-minute contest of composing unscripted poems about Thi Nai Bridge and spring, the compulsory subject set by the organizers. This contest lasted from 3.30 p.m to 6 p.m. It not only roused a fervent environment of poetry love but also revealed fascination and sustainable development of the poetry among the youth. Young people in school uniforms were found standing here, there and everywhere on the Hill of Poets, enjoying the poetic environment. Nguyen Ngoc Lan, a pupil from Quoc Hoc High School, said: “I take part in the Day of Vietnamese poetry every year because it deepens my love for poetry. I consider it the precious opportunity to get acquaintance with older generations of poets and learn more experiences from them…”. Although the contest finished without any first prize, 5 contestants won the same prizes. They all left strong impression of their own unique styles on the same subject of Spring-Thi Nai Bridge-Love.

This year’s festival saw a newly-born contest of calligraphy with participation of 9 male calligraphers and 2 young female calligraphers. “Night of the fifteenth of the first lunar month” poem composed by Uncle Ho (common name of late-President Ho Chi Minh known among Vietnamese people) was set as compulsory content of the contest. Contestants were free to present the poems with different styles, creating many beautiful calligraphy works and magic forms of each verse of the poem. Their calligraphy talent reached full bloom with more poetic inspiring works when the calligraphers entered non-compulsory content of the contest. They were all free to choose their favourite poems. Although most of the calligraphy works weren’t beautiful, some calligraphers didn’t know technique of calligraphy well, their interest and appreciation of traditional calligraphy were worth to be praised.

At 7.30 p.m on 3^rd March, Night of Poetry officially began after grand and urgent rolls of wardrum. The Night of Poetry this year was more crowded than previous years. Attenders were at various ages and from all backgrounds. The organizers decided to change place of stage and paid more attention to decoration, making the stage and surrounding areas more beautiful. The event started with the “Night of the fifteenth of the first lunar month” poem composed by Uncle Ho. Typical works of Binh Dinh poets like “The First Spring” by Han Mac Tu, “Love song of dawn” by Che Lan Vien, “Father from the North, mother from the South” by Xuan Dieu, “Walking under sunlight at beginning of the Spring” by Yen Lan, “Long journey” by Le Thu, “Cooker of Lang Lieu Prince” by Nguyen Thanh Mung,etc. were introduced then. Many special items of the programme such as performance of Tuong classical dramas, singing set-to-music poems, “bai choi” singing (*),etc.

The more it became late, the brighter the moon was. The Night of Poetry became more interesting with many works of members from Binh Dinh Literature-Art Society. An animated dance “4,000-year victorious history of Vietnam” marked the end of the Night of Poetry and the 2007 fifth Day of Poetry in Binh Dinh Province. Each of the attenders went home with more ardent love for poetry.

• Reported by Hoai Thu
• Translated by TU